Surprise Move: Moved out of our family home. And stumbled into some ahas.
I recently went through a move. We knew that when my son went to college, we’d get a place in Miami. We also planned to downsize in Boston. But we decided that first, we’d sell our place in Brookline where we’ve spent the past 12 years and move to Marion, MA for the summer.
NBD, right?
BD, actually, as it turns out. For starters, Brookline lulled us into thinking we didn’t have much stuff. And true, it had no basement or attic. But I also used a guest room as a closet. My husband then got the whole main closet for his Kennedy, Phish, Beatles, etc. memorabilia (taking a few deep breaths as I type). Leading up to the move, we also painstakingly gave things to friends, donated them, and sold them. We also stored a bunch of things for Miami. We thought we did pretty well. Still, we probably went from 3500 square feet to 1200.
We were also lucky to have a professional crew of movers who packed and moved us. But for a variety of reasons, they didn’t finish until after midnight on move day. They couldn’t stay to unpack and remove boxes. They had to go home to their families.
We were left exhausted, surrounded by boxes, virtually no place to walk through the house. Simple things like making a meal were impossible. I ate a chocolate covered banana and went to bed.
I also didn’t think to take any time off work. While I’m my own boss so technically I don’t ask anyone, we’re busy, and I hadn’t held back my calendar so I had a full plate of work and meetings. The wifi that seemed great at a guest house wasn’t great enough for a day of Zoom meetings. I had to lean on my partner Susanne and call in.
But these are all, in the scheme of things, privileged problems. So why am I sharing them? Because ultimately they weren't just privileged problems but a privilege, period. They shook me up -- in some good ways. Here’s what I learned.
It’s good to be new to something. Ben Fischman, who was my CEO at Rue La La and is CEO at M.Gemi (I was their CD and they’re now a client) always encouraged new employees to hold onto that perspective as long as possible.) The bandaid rip of coming into a new space forced me to think clearly about things like what I really needed (more donating!) and where the best spaces would be for quiet work, calls, etc.
Your move: Brands and leaders, replicate this feeling by shopping your own site like a consumer, all the way through actual purchase, delivery and return; shifting your workspace (home or away or hybrid) and/or creating a practice of regularly moving workspaces; asking a team member outside the confines of the work to weigh in, and/or looking at silos and how to break them.
Tackle what you can when you can. I had to keep working between meetings even if it meant I only had a small window. So I’d pick off a small project, like tackling a single drawer or unpacking a single box.
Your move: Don’t wait for massive chunks of time to start a project; we don’t often get massive chunks of time. Try writing a first paragraph only. Outlining a budget roughly. Just linking in with a prospect. Etc.
When you feel blocked, move on. There were lots of hitting-a-wall moments. I thought, “I can’t do more until I get the right storage stuff” or “I’m too tired” or “I can’t do more until I get these donations out of here.” When I felt like that, I moved on to another room. And the change alone showed me what to do next. Later, when I came back to the place where I was stuck, I saw a way to un-stick myself.
Your move: Don’t sit there feeling frustrated and blocked. Drop it and pick up another project. (Or even just stop and eat something and then return.) It’s often just what you need to see something you didn’t see before.
When you don’t have it, do the easiest stuff. When I was so exhausted I didn’t think I could do another thing, I’d just open boxes and throw the tape away. Or just fold and walk boxes to the recycling bin. Sometimes it actually got my energy up, or I’d peek in a box and say “I know where that goes and I can just put it away.”
Your move: Workwise, sometimes when I feel tired, if I have a naming project, I’ll just free associate in a notebook. Not editing myself at all. In the morning, I can return to it and have the start of something. Think about something low-pressure when you’re tired or stuck. Or look for an adjustment that makes a project feel low pressure, like letting yourself do a really, really rough draft and not editing.
Just find the thing that unlocks the other things. Sometimes when I’d get stuck in my move, I’d ask myself: “What’s keeping me from what I want?” It was often a whole little path, like … I want the counter clear so I can make food. I need a place to put the stuff away. There’s a little two-drawer shelf in the garage I could use but I can’t get to it. There’s a lawn mower in front of that. What’s keeping me from getting to the lawn mower? There’s a wheel barrow in front of that…” Then I’d forget about the whole path and just move the wheelbarrow. I’d get back to the first goal (the counter) but usually find other solutions along the way.
Your move: Try to ask yourself what you want throughout the day, and rather than thinking about it holistically (overwhelming!), start with the one aspect or hurdle that will set you down the path. Allow yourself to see where that takes you.
Have you made a move recently? Did it get you thinking? We’d love to hear.